NASA astronaut Victor Glover, a 1999 Cal Poly graduate, has been selected to fly Crew Dragon, a private spaceship built by SpaceX, to the International Space Station in 2019.
NASA astronaut Victor Glover, a 1999 Cal Poly graduate, was selected to fly Crew Dragon, a private spaceship built by SpaceX, to the International Space Station in 2019. Credit: NASA photo

Growing up in Pomona, NASA astronaut Victor Glover never dreamed his career would take him to space.

“My sights were not set anywhere near that high, but I’ll tell you whose were: my dad,” said Glover, who graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1999. “That’s the power of having support from your family and your mentors.”

On Monday, NASA announced that Glover and three other astronauts — a trio from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency — will make the first manned flight around the moon since 1972.

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, from left: NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman, seated, and Victor Glover and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Credit: NASA photo

The mission will test the Orion spacecraft for use in future expeditions, which will include an eventual lunar landing. It’s also the first mission to the moon’s proximity to include a woman and a person of color as part of the crew.

The space agency selected Glover as one of 18 finalists for the Artemis II lunar mission in December 2020. Glover, 46, learned of his selection as a finalist in 2021 while orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station on a NASA mission — and nearly missed the decision meeting because he was running late.

“Our boss was there and his boss was there, and they asked us, ‘How would you feel about flying on Artemis II?’” Glover told The Tribune on Tuesday. “I would say the first reaction was shock. I was stunned, speechless, but then I told them, ‘I’m honored and humbled. Put me in coach — I’m ready to play.’”

Glover said he’s grateful for the inspiration he received during his time on the Central Coast.

NASA Astronaut: Cal Poly Inspired Career in Space

According to Glover, seeing the movie “Top Gun” made him want to fly jets for the U.S. Navy, while watching NASA space shuttle launches on television as a kid made him long to sit in the cockpit of a spacecraft.

Glover said his teachers and academic advisers at Cal Poly, including Dan Walsh and Mostafa Chinichian, encouraged him to pursue a career in space exploration. The first time he met Chinichian in his office, Glover recalled, he noticed a picture on one wall: a photo of Frederick “Caustic Junior” Sturckow, a NASA space shuttle pilot and another Cal Poly alum.

That photo put the “image in my mind of how amazing astronauts are,” Glover said, and gave him the idea of pushing for space. Glover said his desire to reach space grew as he completed his engineering degree at Cal Poly. He remembers when astronauts Pam Melroy and Greg Chamitoff visited campus to speak about their careers.

Glover said he was inspired by “meeting people that I thought were heroes and seeing the power that they had on our culture.” Asked what else compelled him to pursue a career in space, Glover mentioned science fiction, “curiosity, a love of science and the scientific method and wanting to satisfy curiosities — all of it.”

He’s not the first Cal Poly graduate to enter the final frontier — Chamitoff, Stuckrow and Robert “Hoot” Gibson all were involved in missions from the early space shuttle flights to the construction of the International Space Station. After graduating from Cal Poly, Glover was commissioned as a Navy ensign in 1999 and earned his naval aviator wings in 2001.

Victor Glover, a NASA astronaut and Cal Poly grad, returned to Earth on May 2, 2021, after spending nearly six months aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA photo

He later earned a master’s degree in flight test engineering at Air University at Edwards Air Force Base in 2007, a master’s degree in systems engineering at Naval Postgraduate School in 2009 and a master’s degree in military operational art and science at Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2010.

Over the course of his career, Glover, now a naval captain, has accumulated 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, more than 400 carrier-arrested landings and 24 combat missions, according to NASA.

Glover previously served as a pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1, which landed May 2, 2021, after a 168-day expedition in space aboard the International Space Station. On that mission, known as Expedition 64, Glover served as the flight engineer, participated in scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, and completed four spacewalks.

“We work pretty hard up there on the International Space Station, but when I could stare out the cupola at our planet, I took advantage of that moment,” Glover said. “I was able to sit in there for one full orbit once, and so whenever I saw California, I would stare down at it and a lot of my fond memories were Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and the Central Coast.”

Glover met his wife at Cal Poly, he said, and when his daughter made her decision to follow in her parents’ footsteps to the San Luis Obispo university, he did “some zero-G flips” on the ISS.

Astronaut Prepares for Moon Mission

Glover said he and the rest of the Artemis II crew are undergoing rigorous training in preparation for flying around the moon. As the mission’s pilot, Glover said he “very much respected” the power and responsibility that comes with sitting atop 5.5 million pounds of high explosives.

“We train for what we do, and getting used to something (and) training for it not only makes you better at it, it helps you to work through the nerves when you do have them, because you know what the first thing is to do, and you know what the next thing is to do,” Glover said. “It’s a part of the power of training and being prepared.”

With 168 days logged in space so far, Glover said he feels thankful for the journeys he’s already taken, along with the chance to do it again.

“It’s blowing my mind that I get to go back to space at all, and now I’m going to the moon,” he said.

Artemis II Mission is ‘Significant Step’ in Space Exploration

The 10-day Artemis II lunar mission represents a “significant step” in starting humanity’s exploration of its solar system, Glover said. He said that he and his fellow crew members will help test the new generation of Orion rockets that will carry future astronauts to the moon for actual lunar landings.

Victor Glover Credit: NASA photo

Glover said he’s not disappointed he won’t get to set foot on the lunar surface on this mission, as doing so would undermine the gratitude he feels over being selected for the Artemis II mission.

Gratitude, Glover said, is not about what you get but about what you deserve in life.

“I’m in a place where I don’t need to go back to space ever, so going to space at all is truly a blessing,” Glover said. “I will treat it like the gift that it is.”

However, he added, that he would gladly take on the challenge of landing on the moon if asked.

“I’m looking forward to this mission and these objectives, and maybe I can be here to help train the next crew and share this experience to set them up for success,” Glover said. “My perspective on being an astronaut is that you want to be on the next mission — that’s it.”

More than anything, Glover said he’s guided by the feelings of wonder and novelty that come with exploring the limits of human exploration.

“If I ever stopped feeling that way, then I would leave the office,” Glover said. “I was a pilot long before being an astronaut, and if airplanes fly overhead and I’m not looking up in wonder, then I’m probably going to retire from that, too. If I lose that feeling, then I should not be here.”